Colourful Threads

This site was set up to deny all comments due to the tremendous amount of comment spam that we have received on other Wordpress-based sites.

We recently realized how much I missed getting comments on posts, so we went searching for a solution. WonderfulPages now uses the Challenge plugin, which forces a commenter to add two single digit numbers together before their comment can be submitted.

This shouldn’t be an issue for the majority of our readers.

If you have any problems, contact us.

{edit: I also found out that *blush* the default mail was setup incorrectly. If you’ve been trying to reach us, try again}

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We just doing a unit study on Astronomy.

We completed the first major assignment and made a model of the nine planets. (well eight planets and a dwarf planet, but who’s really counting?!) The planets are actually to scale, according to size. We did not include our 12 1/2 foot sun, although we measured it out in the kitchen.

On a whim, we wondered what the distances between the planets would be if we measured them out to scale. I found just such an activity at Astronomy at Home: Science Experiments for the Entire Family. So Thursday evening found us at local hall, unrolling toilet paper rolls to see just how far away Pluto really is.

The kids had a blast. We all had a blast. I’m so very glad we chose to home school, because I can’t imagine doing anything else!

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(This is a narration that Page2 (almost 9 years old) wrote today for a story in Baldwin’s Fifty Famous Stories Retold. For more information on narration visit Simply Charlotte Mason.)

Wise King Canute

O, wise King Canute, great king of the Danes,
told his officers never to praise him again.
He proved his foolish officers wrong,
that he was not so very strong.
He told the water to not touch his feet,
but the water and his feet did meet.

–LittlePage2

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A table is not a chair.

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My very first “public” blog for the Carnival of Beauty was in the Beauty of Bread. I posted my recipe for my Whole Wheat Bosch Bread and I forgot to write in the recipe instructions when to add the yeast!

Yikes!

Of all the terrible mistakes to make. I’ve fixed the original post and mentioned the error at the Carnival.

I apologize most profusely.

–Mrs. Pages

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1. Baking Bread with My Bosch Concept

My children asked if they could use their blankets and comforters to make tents in the living room. I heartily approved.

When I was little we called them “forts.”

My children proudly called me to come and inspect their “condos”!

I’m starting to feel my age…

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When I first got my Bosch Concept I was so excited. I had read that you could make four loaves at a time in an hour! After I used it, I was very disappointed. Apparently, I could only make four bricks.

I ended up using it as a really expensive blender for a long while before guilt forced me to try making bread again. I found a few recipes on the web and adapted them so they used ingredients that I had on hand.

Now I really do make four loaves in just an hour, and absolutely love the results.

WonderfulPages Whole Wheat Bosch Bread Recipe

Ingredients

16 cups of flour, approximately
6 cups of water, heated to 125F
1/2 cup milk powder (optional)
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/4 cup honey (or 1/2 cup sugar)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons vital gluten

Directions

1. Making a Sponge.

(I found that a sponge makes lighter whole wheat bread. The extra time is worth it.)

Add the 6 cups of warm water to the Bosch bowl. Add the milk powder, oil, and honey. Measure out 6 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of yeast into the bowl. Place the cover on and mix these ingredient on speed 2 or 3 for 20 to 30 seconds, until well mixed.

Let this mixture rest for twenty to thirty minutes. The sponge should be foaming and growing!

2. Making the Dough

Add the 1 tablespoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of vital gluten to the bowl. Turn the Concept onto speed 1 and steadily add about 10 cups of flour just enough for the dough to clean the sides of the bowl.

Then turn the speed up to 2 and knead the dough for 5-7 minutes until the gluten develops. I “window test” for gluten by pulling off a chunk of dough and stretching it out into a square. If the dough stretches like bubble gum and thin “windows” appear, than the kneading is done.

Take the dough out of the bowl and place on the counter. Cut it into four equal sections. Take each section, press it out flat and then roll it into a loaf. Place each loaf into a greased bread pan.

(Today, I used one of the sections to make a pizza dough. I usually make three loaves and one batch of cinnamon buns.)

3. Rising the Dough

I cover my dough with a clean dish towel rinsed in hot water and wrung out really well. Place the bread pans in a warm place for approximately 30 minutes, until they double in size. I usually turn my stove onto 100F, let it come up to that temperature and then turn it off. I place my bread inside the oven for twenty minutes. Then I take it out, place it on the stove top and preheat my oven to 350F

(Today, since I made a pizza dough, I rolled it out, covered it with plastic wrap and then put it in the fridge. I do not want my pizza dough to rise until I bake my pizza. So it will stay in the fridge until dinner time, when we add sauce and toppings and then bake it, without letting it rise!)

4. Baking the Bread

Preheat your oven to 350F. Bake the loaves for approximately 30 minutes. I often use a meat thermometer to check one of my loaves. The internal temperature should be 200F.

When done remove the loaves from the oven and let sit 10 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pan and let sit on a wire baking rack until cool, approximately 30 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

5. Storing the Bread

Fresh bread is best if eaten within a couple of hours. We eat at least a loaf a day in our home, so I will freeze the other two loaves. I store them in resealable freezer bags. You can slice the bread before you freeze it and then just remove slices as you need them.

Oh and here’s the pizza that I baked latter in the day!

Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures. It is not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life. ~Lionel Poilane

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” –Robert Browning

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(My oldest daughter (soon to be eleven) saw a blog on with a gratfulness list and was inspired to write her own. –MrsPages)

I am Thankful For…

1. Mommy aka MrsPages.
2. Daddy aka MrPages.
3. LittlePage2.
4. LittlePage3.
5. LittlePage4.
6. LittlestPage5.
7. Mommy’s homemade bread.
8. My body.
9. My mind.
10. My food.
11. My clothes.
12. Good friends.
13. -20C winter days with clear blue skies and sparkling snow.
14. Wool blankets on -35C nights.
15. Family Camp at Red Rock Camp.
16. The person (or people) who invented tag.
17. Play structures.
18. Doctors.
19. Books.

I am Thankful That…

20. I sleep in the same room as LittlePage2.
21. I am home schooled.
22. I have 4 other Little Pages too play with.
23. I will be old enough to be able to baby sit next year.
24. We can sponsor 3 children who don’t have very much.
25. People who care listen to me.

–LittlePage1 (who is not so little anymore!)

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The year was 1997. We had just bought our first house. It was cheap. For a reason. We knew it needed work. We knew it would take a few years to make it look nice. We joked with people that we were on the ten year plan. We were joking. Deep down in our deluded hearts, we thought it would just take a few years.

Christmas that year found us at a Christmas party. Someone mentioned how the host had baseboards just like their own. I stared quizzically at the commenter, because there were no baseboards on the wall. The hosts had apparently replaced the carpet and had not found time to put the new baseboards on. The walls had been baseboard-less for two years or so. The commenter had apparently been without baseboards for almost ten years. I was aghast! I was also innocent and naive.

Four babies and ten years later our home is still without baseboards. We removed them before we moved in in order to rip out the pea green carpets and refinish the oak hardwoods that were hiding underneath. We just never got to the baseboards. The furnace blew. In November. The installers left blood on the concrete floor trying to get the new model to fit with forty year old ducting. The roof went the next summer. Then the hot water tank, while Mr Pages was away on a business trip.

The deck finally caved in and became such a death trap for our preschoolers that we ripped it out. In trying to erect a play structure we found an old above ground pool that the previous owner had buried in the back yard. We keep waiting for skeletons. The wind storm the following autumn took our fence.

Inside, we were not faring well either. The dishwasher exploded into the basement. The dryer finally sputtered out its last warm breath. While the house was wired for ground, none of the outlets had three prongs, so Mr Pages dutifully began exchanging them all. Until he pulled out one box in the basement and found the back charred and melted. There had been an electrical fire in the wall. So out came the entire basement. (No loss. It was decorated in sixties black floor tile and orange stained chip board.) Ten men, several sledgehammers and a reciprocating saw make for a interesting Saturday afternoon. We eventually had to replace the whole main electrical box

Baby number five required us to replace the sagging patio doors and make a storage room into a nursery.

And so nine years later and several blown budgets, we are still without baseboards. The pantry is almost done, though. The front hall entryway just needs drywalling. The basement is framed, insulated and some of the walls are primed.

Most importantly, we have learned that you really can do anything you set your mind too. Plumbing, electrical, framing, roofing, drywalling – if we have wanted it done, we have checked out a book from the library and done it.

And really who needs baseboards anyway? Where else would we store all those Cheerios?

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I have four children who have successfully come through “preschool”, but over the years I have struggled with exactly what that should mean.

With my first couple of children, preschool was just a special playtime that Mama participated in – playdough, crafts, games, reading, etc.

As those older ones started more formal school, my role with the younger ones felt like it changed. Playtime became something I participated in less – no loss as my oldest loved to take over that role – and large group activities took over more of my time. These “projects” included the little ones – much to their delight but they were disappointed that they didn’t have “school with Mama”, like their big sisters and brothers.

So I tried to find some curriculum that would please them and me (although, lets be honest, anything I found pleased them!). It needed to have minimal prep time, and it needed to not be twaddle.

I have had a steady stream of programs that failed either one or both these requirements.

I am now working with the free online program at Brightly Beaming Steps to Reading Program: Step 1 Preparatory Curriculum . It does require some prep, but so far I’m enjoying it. My other children are helping out and that gives me both joy and accountability.

I would really like to see this one through to the end. This may be my last time through preschool, and I’d like to find out what comes after the letter J!

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Growing up I always loved the story of the The Elves and the Shoemaker

Now I do not have piles of leather lying about waiting for little elves to save the day, but I do have piles of library books – sometimes over 100 – checked out on six different cards.

Library day consisted of over an hour of time just logging in to the library and getting everyone’s due dates straightened out. I have tried tracking books on the calendar, using the print off sheets, keeping them all on a separate shelf – everything I could think of, to no avail. We are personally responsible for financing a large proportion of the Library Acquisitions Department with our overdue fees.

It became so bad, that last September, we actually STOPPED going to the library. This was a tragedy with major implications for my children. “I have nothing new to read!” they would wail disconsolately from their beds.

In desperation, I muttered my wish, loaded Google and typed in, “keeping track of library books.” The second hit brought into my home a little elf that has saved my sanity, my budget, and my children’s reading appetites.

Library Elf is a web site that allows you to track multiple library cards with just one account. After creating my main account, I entered in each of my family’s library cards. Now with the click of one button I get a complete listing of all our books, holds, and overdues in the order that they are due!
Best of all, Library Elf emails me daily with a list of what’s due or ready to pick up! Everyday. We haven’t had an overdue book for almost three months!

These people deserve a some sort of Homeschooling Mother’s Appreciation Award.

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